Feds reject Ohio's request to nix Obamacare individual mandate

Posted May 17, 2018

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said an Ohio application to change parts of Obamacare lacked details, in a letter Thursday rejecting the state proposal. (Laura Hancock/cleveland.com)

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The federal government has turned down Ohio's request to nix Obamacare's individual mandate, saying the Department of Insurance didn't provide necessary information in its application.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a Thursday letter to Ohio Department of Insurance Director Jillian Froment, said Ohio needs to provide a state plan that "among other things, must provide coverage that is at least as comprehensive and affordable as that as provided under Title I of (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,) and must provide coverage to at least a comparable number of residents..."

Ohio's application does not provide a description of any program, the letter states.

Ohio also never provided a reason for its request to be exempted from the Obamacare requirements.

"For this reason and those described above, the Departments determined that the application is not complete," the letter stated.

The letter ends by saying it would work with Ohio on a revision.

The Department of Insurance is reviewing the federal government's response and is "currently reviewing it to determine potential next steps," agency spokesman Chris Brock said in a statement.

The individual mandate, quite simply, requires everyone to get health insurance and that larger companies cover their full-time employees. Ohio began working on the federal request last year and submitted the application this year. Under Ohio's request, state residents were to decide in January 2019 whether they wanted to get insurance.

The Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly required the department to submit the application. Democrats have voiced concerns that the overall premise of the ACA - that health care costs will decrease if everyone is covered - is at risk with removal of the individual mandate.

The insurance department previously said it was confident the application would get the OK because in December, Congress passed a federal income tax overhaul that removed tax penalties charged to people who refused to get health insurance.

Many Ohioans get health insurance through work. About 3 million get Medicaid or Medicaid expansion coverage. About 233,000 Ohioans are enrolled in policies they obtained on the federal health insurance exchange that had been created under Obamacare.

The conservative Buckeye Institute think tank released a statement criticizing the federal government for its inflexibility to work with the state.

"The Ohio application does not impact health coverage according to actuarial evidence," it said.